I woke up this morning with an intense desire to blog – so at this writing moment I’m thinking today is going to be a great day!

I think absolutely everyone in my social network has been hassled with hard questions like “How do you translate game mechanics to Norwegian?”. So many excellent suggestions, but I never seem to be satisfied. I’m not happy with the direct translation which would be spillmekanikk. I’ve been trying to write some articles for the mainstream media and at the moment half of the articles I’ve written have been published. I’m quite chuffed and proud about that. Firstly because the content isn’t always considered newsworthy and second – I’m no freakin journalist!

Writing for the mainstream media has really been a challenge. This is why I can’t just directly translate ‘game mechanics’, as it seems to be an industry term. Although – let me just say – I’m not too keen on underestimating the reader, either – I’ve been torn a few times. I had a lot of fun with treating the components of computer games as recipies. But my favourite and smartest proof reader didn’t like my “a main gaming ingredient” – one of the few red comments I chose to ignore, perhaps that’s why it never got printed. Either way, I really enjoyed it – but it took me forever! Translating is certainly a complicated process. But it’s an important one. And the more I think about it, the more happy I am that I’m bilingual. When you’re stuck with describing something you’ve just learned to accept as a given, like the words ‘game mechanics’, you really start to dwell on the meaning of the words. And to then try to explain it to people who’ve never played a computer game before – you really need to think things through. And what fun it is, but – really – it takes a lot of thought, effort, time and I have to admit, several moments of despair (just ask anyone on my msn)! I’m so used to thinking in English, as well – so there were a lot of high walls to climb. I have to say, my respect for journalists has just grown immensely.

Now, I’m finding myself in another dilemma. After painstakingly putting myself on the language level of the ‘woman on the street’ when it comes to computer games – I am now trying to write a phd proposal and finding it hard to step up to academia language again. I mean – aesthetical process? What is that supposed to mean? Suddenly I’m feeling lost and dumb and kinda intimidated. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because I haven’t been reading a lot lately – I’m outta practice. So now I’m setting aside some time to concentrate on reading as well.

Time management is becoming a severe priority in my life, and I’m wondering if I should cut my hours at work a bit – working 8 hours 5 days a week is starting to get in the way of all the other stuff I need to do if I’m to get anywhere further. Weekends and nights just aren’t enough. But my rent has just been raised – oh deary me! But the utmost important thing I’ve learned about time management is that: 1) You need to acknowledge that some things are a process that just take quite a lot of time – like writing and reading – there’s no use trying to these things in a hurry – little by little – but never stop being productive. 2)Do not hold off having fun til you’re finished – this only leads to more despair and agony. I’ve actually found that if my ‘fun’ time is spent going to a museum, exhibition, concert – something entertaining and social – the better my ‘fun’ rewards (meaning – my productivity is great after experiencing something cultural) 3) Heavy duty thinking is impossible after heavy duty drinking the night before at my age – become a responsible adult! Hehe. 4) Casual games are freakin excellent for little breaks

Woo – I’m having trouble stopping writing. Such fun to just take the time to blog a bit! My feeds intake has been lacking lately! Now – I’m going to prioritise working on emails to machinima producers asking for permission and their films to be shown at a machinima night at Landmark – 29 November. I’m sooooooo excited – and yet extremely nervous! Then – print out some papers on machinima Kristine was kind enough to e-mail me – to be read when I come home tonight, after working on the impossible task of cleaning my apartment after renovation – where do I start with this mess?
This mess is the worst of my day – the other stress is a lot of fun – but I do moan a lot! Ooops – need to get back to work!